Circular Quay

Arthur Streeton painted this glimpse of Circular Quay in 1892, back when Sydney's harbor was one of the busiest in Australia. Steamboats puff along the water while sailing ships crowd the shore, and the wide wharf stretches out in warm, sun-bleached tones. Tiny figures move about their day, going to work or catching a ferry, and among them a woman in yellow stands out like a small burst of sunshine near the middle of the scene. The whole thing shimmers with the hazy light of a bright afternoon.

Streeton belonged to the Heidelberg School, a group of Australian artists who took the ideas of French Impressionism and applied them to the light and landscapes of their own country. That approach shows here in his quick, loose brushwork and his interest in atmosphere rather than crisp detail. He wasn't after a photograph. He wanted to catch the feeling of a port buzzing with life, at a moment when Sydney was booming and its harbor served as the doorway to the rest of the world.

Streeton would later become one of Australia's most cherished landscape painters, and pictures like this one helped shape the way Australians pictured their homeland. What lingers here is its unfussy warmth, a simple tribute to an ordinary working day told through color and light.